Arun Jaitley to inaugurate India Investment Summit on February 4

Several foreign pension and sovereign wealth funds are expected to participate in the summit which will be held in New Delhi on February 4-5.

New Delhi: Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will on February 4 inaugurate the two-day India Investment Summit, which is aimed at attracting long-term foreign investors into the infrastructure sector.

During the summit, Jaitley will also unveil the logo of National Infrastructure and Investment Fund (NIIF), a Finance Ministry statement said.

Several foreign pension and sovereign wealth funds are expected to participate in the summit which will be held here on February 4-5.

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority MD H H Sheikh Hamid Bin Zayed Al Nahyan would deliver a special address during the inaugural session, the statement added.

The summit would have multiple sessions including one titled 'Current Status, Outlook and Investment Opportunities in Developing Urban Infrastructure'.

Other sessions would focus on outlook and investment opportunities in power and renewable energy sector and another on road transport, highways and ports. Also one would be on investment opportunities in the railways sector.

India has been trying to attract foreign investments to succeed its 'Make in India' campaign, boost economic growth and generate employment opportunities.

Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, Road Transport & Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya and top

bureaucrats from finance and infrastructure ministries would attend the Summit.

The second day of the summit will focus on 'Regulatory Architecture' which will be addressed by Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, and attended by Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian and RBI Deputy Governor H R Khan, among others.

Thereafter, there will be 'State Sessions' where Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Gujarat will showcase investment opportunities

available in their places.

The Finance Ministry is seeking participation from SWFs for the Rs 40,000 crore NIIF, which will act as a nodal agency for funding long-term projects, including stalled ones.

The ministry is in the process of finalising the first set of foreign investors in NIIF.

Since coming to power in May 2014, the NDA government has relaxed foreign direct investment norms in over a dozen sectors including defence, banking, railways, construction and medical devices.

Jaitley has on several occasions said the country needs to attract foreign investment to supplement domestic efforts to accelerate growth.

The summit would showcase and discuss the huge long-term infrastructure investment opportunities in India. Also a booklet containing the list of possible infrastructure projects for funding will also be released during the summit.